"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~ Mary Oliver

pairs. . .

by mulberryshoots

I’ve been thinking about pairs recently. Whom we pair off with mostly.

Compatability is something that’s often raised to explain why people find each other. You can see that when you look around you. Shared abilities and interests such as listening to music and picking up similarities in what you each hear. A lifestyle and aesthetic that is easy going because you intuitively like the same things. Such as living in a home that you don’t like to leave for very long. Pride of place. Eating dinner together every night, listening to the evening news and watching the sun set.

In the I-Ching, there are Wanderers, who never stay in one place for long. My first husband was a Wanderer. Since we parted, he has done exactly that–taken job postings with his wife in places like Morocco, Georgia (the country, not the state). I know others who travel all the time and seem not to be able to sit still in one place. Where is home for them?

One of the great wonders of the Western World is what time teaches us. Whatever it is, one thing is clear–we have NO IDEA what is in store for us when we are young. Or middle-aged. Or later on either, for that matter. It’s a mystery all the way, it seems. That’s also what’s fun about it if we can have a sense of humor about how things turn out.

ralph waldo emerson:

“Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you: build, therefore, your own world.”

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

morning glories

Every year we plant "heavenly blue" morning glory seedlings in front of the barn. By the Fall, their brilliant blooms create an evanescent blanket of blue, viewed from our kitchen window on foggy mornings in late October and November.
Each flower blooms in the morning and fades at night, a reminder to live each day as it opens and closes.